Adler Realty Investments, a commercial real estate property owner and manager, and building partner of the Los Angeles Better Buildings Challenge (LABBC), recently collaborated with Budderfly LLC and EnPro to deploy and test Budderfly’s innovative energy management technology in one of their properties in Woodland Hills. Budderfly, a LABBC Technology Partner, provides a turn-key energy management solution for property owners and has agreed to provide discounts to participating LABBC building partners.

The Woodland Hills office property is part of a multi building office complex. Adler, Budderfly, and the LABBC worked together to select a property in the office park that had unusually high electricity consumption compared to its peer buildings. In order to isolate the source of excessive energy consumption Budderfly installed its innovative energy management system. The Budderfly system included:

Intelligent light switches to monitor and control lighting loads

Advanced power strips to monitor and control plug load at the workstation level

Temperature sensors

Electrical panel level monitoring devices

The Budderfly devices leverage power line carrier and wireless technology to create a modern Internet of Things (IoT) network of smart devices that help manage and control energy consumption in the Woodland Hills facility.

With the Budderfly system installed, understanding energy consumption by time of day and type of use was revealed. The real-time data gathered by the Budderfly system revealed that HVAC efficiency and control strategies were driving excessive consumption. This, coupled with the tenant’s extended operating schedule, caused higher than normal consumption. Budderfly’s analytic tools and professional services also provided verification that information technology related energy consumption was not a major cost contributor (about 3% of overall consumption).

The graph below outlines the energy usage data (kWh) that was tracked in the Woodland Hills building using the Budderfly technology.

Using this benchmark data produced by the Budderfly system, several load curtailment strategies are being evaluated. The Budderfly system identified several points of excessive consumption that could be controlled and contribute to energy consumption savings. For example vending machines, computer workstations, copiers, break room/kitchen refrigeration could be turned off during periods of time when the business is not operating. Turning these devices off when the business is closed could reduce their overall energy consumption by more than 30%. The data also revealed that additional consumption savings would be gained by improving lighting control strategies for common areas, building exterior, and parking lot lighting could also drive further savings.

“The insights provided by the Budderfly system gave us a unique view into when, where, and how energy was consumed in this facility. Using this information we are able to plan and allocate resources toward those building efficiency projects that will have the greatest return on investment,” said Tae Nam Senior Director for Adler Realty.

“The Budderfly system clearly provided a cost effective solution for managing energy consumption in this one building and could be expanded across the entire Adler portfolio. The system becomes an embedded part of the building infrastructure that not only provides data to isolate problems but delivers continuous commissioning to help identify excessive energy consumption trends that could be addressed before excessive waste is identified,” said Ken Buda, Vice President of Operations for Budderfly.

In addition to the monitoring and control features of the Budderfly system, the products and services offered by Budderfly enable organizations to measure and verify (M&V) the performance of energy efficiency investments, it also provides a cost effective platform for California Title 24 compliance as it applies to plug load control.

The comprehensive functionality of the Budderfly solution provides commercial property owners with energy information and control infrastructure they need to drive maximum value from their real estate portfolios.